Welcome back all, because of the type of person I am, I feel that I have to mention that most likely at the time you’re reading this I will be sitting by an adults only pool with a cocktail in one hand and my Kindle in the other somewhere in Fiji. Ahhhhh…. the serenity!

Anyway, moving on to the book! I have some really conflicting feelings about this one. I felt really uncomfortable reading like the first half of this book on my way to and from work on the train. And I’m pretty sure I spent just as much time looking around for people reading over my shoulder as I did actually reading. On the other hand, I can’t wait for book 2 to tell me more!

I feel like the first half of this book was pretty much copied from a bad porno. You know those one’s where say a plumber turns up to a house wive’s home to fix the “plumbing” only to end up having sex with her? It was like that but with real estate. Like yes, I can admit as a woman when we’ve had tradies over sometimes you do admire how they look. But do we act on it? No. And that’s because it’s inappropriate! So how is it that the first 4 house valuations our main character does, he ends up sleeping with the client?

I persisted because I feel like I owe it to the author to read the whole book (don’t judge a book by it’s cover and all) and I’ve always said that you need to finish a book to be truly able to form an opinion about it. So I did. But I gota say it took me longer than it really should have. And that came from the fact that I wasn’t emotionally invested in it. And my lack of investment came from the fact that the first half of the book is all superficial. We don’t get anything emotionally real happening until after the halfway mark, when our main character gets suspended for sleeping with his clients (no surprises there right?). But why did it take 4 encounters rather than just one? Given the reasons cited for causing the issue to be raised there was no need for the senseless porn feel happening.

What really got me after this point what that he really started to evaluate what he was doing with his life, what he wanted to achieve and was it worthwhile. And in the second half of the book you can see his character really developing. And that’s when I started to get hooked. He starts entertaining the idea of starting up his own real estate firm to help him earn a million by the time he’s 30. And he acts on it. I can feel for him at this point because the job security in my country isn’t the greatest at the moment, and so I’m trying to find other ways to make sure my income will always be secure. Because, you know, you wana keep your quality of life!

So I admire him for going after what he wants, and I’m also jealous of him for forming contacts that allow him to achieve these dreams without too much risk. If I was to quit my job today and start my own business I’m pretty sure I’d be broke within a month! So that fact that he’s able to run with it and succeed with the support of one of his side pieces is pretty cool. And btw when I say side piece, every woman he slept with in this book offered it to him rather than him chasing them. Which pisses me off and pleases my feminist side all at the same time. Like what kind of god is he that women throw themselves at him? But at the same time, he never once forced himself on a woman even though they were in highly emotional states.

So I’m really hoping when (if?) a book 2 comes out that we will continue to explore the character development and their relationship rather than the sex. I honestly feel that sex should be well placed in a book and add meaning to the story rather than random sex scenes just coz. And a lot of them in this book felt “just coz” which really disappointed me.

Anyway, to finish off, I think you’d enjoy this one so long as you can get past all the porno level sex scenes and get to the character development parts. Coz those are really well written!

And time for me to head back to my sun, water and booze for my last week of holidays for 6 months! I hope you liked it and next week I will be reviewing “Reinventing Mona” by Jennifer Coburn. See you then!